Should I engage an agency for my marketing or do it myself?

2) Your marketing personnel keep leaving the company due to `better offers’

3) Your marketing cost is too high, resulting in lower profit margins

4) You are frustrated working with too many different freelancers and people in the marketing medium

5) You have a well-strategized marketing plan that is unfortunately, poorly executed due to `interference’ from day-to-day business activities

More often than not, your marketing people are too close to the company, the products, the brand, distribution and competitor.

The only people you should be focusing on should be your prospective customers, when you are trying to market your products/services.

Most of these things don’t really matter because the essence of marketing is getting inside the mind of consumers. Good agency people look at the brand the way the consumer looks at the brand; not the way the company looks at the brand.

The pros & cons of hiring an agency

Think in these contexts before deciding whether working with an agency or do-it-yourself.

Strategic Planning

Professionally trained people will be required for strategic and comprehensive marketing plan to be done. Planning your campaign and identifying the framework for implementing the most powerful promotional campaign for your company is crucial in accelerating your progress and achieving the results that you are aiming for. This requires a professional marketing team that has intensive knowledge of the integrated marketing process that can facilitate the entire campaign…. and this won’t be easy to find. Of course, you do not need to engage an agency if you do found the team!

Expertise / Skills

Most award winning professional designers and creative directors prefer to work in agencies where they can cultivate the culture and be inspired by each other in the same industry.

Technology is changing very fast and your website developer has to stay in-touch with the latest inventions and software.

Training and development to all staffs related to marketing and sales function has to be done concurrently with the actions of planning and devising a marketing plan.

Do you have a proper marketing automation system that helps you fully bring in leads and nurture them?

Do you have a customer retention program in place to keep and retain customers?

An agency will be able to tell you what works, and what doesn’t work. Justified with reasoning behind each action they perform. No more guess works and trying blindly.

Is your marketing manager a multi-tasker?

She might be designing your website landing pages, creating call-to-action graphics, writing your company blogs, posting news and updates on social media, collaborating with newspapers, magazines and other media owners on day-to-day basis. Not to mention web developers working on codings and e-commerce websites.

Congratulations if you have found such manager and beware that this person might be head-hunted by your competitors in the future. Relying on one person as such puts your company at risk.

It’s actually more cost – effective to partner with an agency and let a team of experienced professionals build and maintain your brand with you. Their experience and expertise coupled with your knowledge of the industry is a recipe for both a quicker and more sizeable return on investment.

Allocation of Time and Resources

Lets count the…

Number of marketing executives you have

Number of in-house content creators, designers and copywriters you have

Number of social media specialist you have

Number of Website Developer you have

Lets check how much growth are you expecting the company to generate in the next 12 months down the road:

Moderate

I want my company revenue growth to be 10 – 12% in the next 12 months

I wish to grow my market share by 2-3% in the next 12 months

I have limited budget for marketing, advertising and branding, yet I know the importance of these activities for my long term goals and wish to start now

High

I want my company revenue growth to be 15 – 25% in the next 12 months

I wish to grow my market share by 5-6% in the next 12 months

I have allocated some resources and systems in place that facilitate the process

Full

I expect my company to grow exponentially (over 25%) in the next 12 months

I wish to grow my market share by 8 – 9% in the next 12 months

I have been in the market for quite some time and I am aiming bigger I have enough resources, people and systems in place to achieve my goals

By identifying which type of business goals you are setting, you get to know how much resources are you required to achieve your business goals.

You will need an expert to be able to convert your business goals into marketing goals. Daily tasks such as content creation, designing, blogging, social media marketing, answering and responding to feedbacks from prospects will need to be assigned and done by your marketing and sales team.

If you are a lone-ranger, you will definitely need to find great partners that can help you work on the full integrated marketing efforts. If you have an aggressive business goals, yet don’t currently having the time or resources to perform a daily task list like those mentioned above, you’re a prime candidate to consider partnering with marketing / branding / advertising agencies.

We see ourselves as your strategic branding partner, providing you with the essential marketing tools and insights that ensure your brand’s longevity, no matter the economic conditions that may come.

Offer Value for Money (VFM) – Understand that each dollar your customers spend comes from their hard work and efforts. Let them know that you care. Let them know how your products/ services are worth what they’re paying for.

Make things simple and easy-to-use, from Registration to Product Delivery.

Give back to society – There’s a catchphrase for it: Corporate Social Responsibility. Create partnerships with various NGOs in the community.

We see ourselves as your strategic branding partner, providing you with the essential marketing tools and insights that ensure your brand’s longevity, no matter the economic conditions that may come.

Your Marketing Executives are busy liaising with media partners, arranging for interviews, creating artworks, generating blog posts, scheduling social media posts on Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn. Nobody seems to like interacting with customers, asking them what kind of information they are interested in seeing, as only “one-way” communication happens.

Do you know that your fans are more concerned about Deals, Promotions and Rewards, not Information and Knowledge?

The main reason why a person “unlike”s your page is you are interrupting their life as the information that you post are irrelevant to them.

So produce meaningful insights for your fans, if not they will find someone else who will.

We hope you find the posts on this page useful and relevant to you. Feel free to contact us so that we can generate better insights for you.

All your brand’s contents have to be in line with your corporate brand, business objectives and marketing objectives. At LINs.AD, we have helped thousands of brands develop branded contents and events over the last 25 years.

Based on a recent study, only a minority of SME/SMI owners understands the importance of brand-building.

“Brand equity is that incremental value that accrues to a product when it is branded. Simple brand awareness is one source of brand equity. If you can get your name to pop up in people’s minds when they think of the product category, you’ve won a big part of the battle,” says V. “Seenu” Srinivasan, the Adams Distinguished Professor in Management at the Graduate School of Business.

How your logo evolves (or doesn’t) has the potential to make or break your brand.

Consider the case of “Pepsico”. The evolution of the “Pepsi” logo over the decades was strategically executed to enhance the company’s brand value, and also maintain its connection with customers.

Despite a permit from the company to use its logo costing US$1 million upfront, many continue to vie in featuring this logo, due to the company’s solid brand reputation.

So, under what circumstances should a brand owner consider tweaking or even changing the brand’s logo?

1. When the current logo isn’t relevant anymore vis-à-vis the modern media. Cross-channel and integrated media network distribution play important roles in this information age. Consumers get confused when they see different logos of different sizes on different platforms! If you happen to have this concern, it’s time to consider standardizing – and changing – your logo.

2. Your business has evolved over the years, but you’re still using the same logo! Your existing logo might not resemble your business’s nature, anymore.

3. Your competitors have a better, more applicable or more interesting logo than you do. A cleaner, more professional look may just be what you need.

4. Your logo is too complicated – having too many unnecessary lines or effects! Take a look at the world’s top brands’ logos. Clean, clear designs are the ones that usually withstand the test of time.

5. You’ve been using a DIY logo since your start-up days. Your design may well be outdated, or your business may have transformed significantly since then.

A skilfully-designed logo is one that resonates and connects with people from all walks, ages, languages, culture and nationalities of life.

But how would you evaluate whether your brand’s logo is doing what it should?

The best way to know is to talk to pros who have been working on brand logos for more than 20 years. Only a professional agency, powered by professional designers would be able to allay any doubts you have, and help you realign your thoughts on your brand.

Let us be your strategic branding partner, providing you with the essential marketing tools and insights that ensure your brand’s longevity – no matter the economic conditions that may come.